Fact Check: Deaths of five Indian soldiers in recent accident falsely shared as killings by Kashmiri militants

Hyderabad: Disinformation and propaganda wars on social media by Pakistani accounts have been part of broader efforts to influence public opinion and political narratives both domestically and internationally.

Against this backdrop, an image of a destroyed military tank is circulating on social media, accompanied by claims that Kashmiri militants killed five Indian soldiers in Ladakh. The accounts describe the militants as ‘Kashmiri freedom fighters’.

A premium X handle, PSYWAR Bureau, shared the image of the tank and wrote, “Five Indian… Army soldiers killed after Kashmiri freedom fighters fired an RPG at an Indian T-72 tank in Ladakh, llOJK. (sic)” (Archive)

Another X account, Pakistan First, while making the same claim wrote, “3 am 29th Jun 2024 an Indian army T 72 tank while it was crossing a bridge at Daulat Beg Oldie in occupied Jammu & Kashmir got struck with an IED by Kashmiri freedom fighters. Destroying both the bridge and the Main Battle Tank, killing all 5 offices in the Tank. (sic)” (Archive)

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is false. The deaths of the five Indian Army soldiers were not from a militant attack but due to an accident during a river-crossing exercise. Additionally, the image of the destroyed tank is from 2022, related to the Russia-Ukraine war.

Upon performing a reverse image search of the destroyed tank in the first X post, we found it posted by an X premium account, Ukraine Weapons Trackers, on August 15, 2022. The account identified the tank in the image as a T-72B Obr. 1989, a Russian forces tank, was destroyed in Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast. (Archive)

We also found the image of the destroyed tank in an article published by Spotmedia on August 17, 2022.

The caption read, “Russian tank, taken out of battle by Ukrainians in the Donetsk region.” The article reported that Russia lost more than a hundred tanks in the Russia-Ukraine war, highlighting that many of the weapons used by Putin’s army were outdated.

What caused the deaths of the five Indian soldiers?

Investigation into the claim of deaths of Indian soldiers led us to reports by NDTV and ABC News, published on June 29.

According to these reports, five Indian Army soldiers were killed when their T-72 tank met with an accident during a river-crossing exercise near the Line of Actual Control in Leh’s Daulat Beg Oldi area in the early hours of Saturday.

The official X account of the Fire and Fury Corps of the Indian Army posted an update stating that on the night of June 28, 2024, an Army tank got stuck in the Shyok River near Saser Brangsa in Eastern Ladakh due to a sudden rise in water levels while de-inducting from a military training exercise. Rescue teams were promptly dispatched, but the strong water current and rising levels hindered the rescue efforts, resulting in the tragic loss of the tank crew. The Indian Army expressed deep regret over the loss of five brave personnel who were operationally deployed in Eastern Ladakh. They also mentioned that rescue operations are ongoing. (Archive)

Hence, we conclude that the claim of five Indian soldiers being killed by Kashmiri militants is false.